[okie01]

"Someone ran a Nexus search of the two stories just before Jesse's killers went to trial. I wish I could remember the numbers, but it was stunning. They found thousands of articles on the Shepherd murder, only a dozen or so on the Jesse Dirkhising torture/murder."

The disparity became so obvious that the ombudsperson for the Washington Post was called upon to write a column explaining why they never reported the Dirkhising case.

Her explanation, in sum: it was a local (Arkansas) issue and they saw no reason for their audience (nationwide, Washington metro and international) to be concerned with the story.

I sent her an e-mail -- a very courteous and restrained e-mail -- challenging her logic.

Astoundingly, I got a response. She accused me of being a "right-wing extremist", a "homophobe" and an "admirer of David Duke"...

That's what you want from an ombudsperson, I guess. Even-handedness...

[lentulusgracchus]

The disparity became so obvious that the ombudsperson for the Washington Post was called upon to write a column explaining why they never reported the Dirkhising case. Her explanation, in sum: it was a local (Arkansas) issue and they saw no reason for their audience (nationwide, Washington metro and international) to be concerned with the story.

Brent Bozell cornered one of the big-name editors, I think it was a WaPo editor, and pressed him about why the Dirkhising story didn't play in the guy's paper. His reply, which you can find in Bozell's Media Research Center column archive, was that "It didn't 'resonate'." Which Bozell rightly skewered as "It didn't fit with our Message."